


Words-A day in the life

by mbk23



Category: Homeland
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-07
Updated: 2016-12-07
Packaged: 2018-09-07 04:41:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8783569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mbk23/pseuds/mbk23
Summary: Advent Calendar for December 7





	

_My little Advent Story. Sorry no angst, no suspense, no nothing really, as canon provides more than a fair share of that.  It’s for a happy CQ Christmas after all._

_Just three fragments, snippets in the (extra)ordinary CQ family._

 

In the not so distant future, few weeks before Christmas, a day in the life of the Mathison – Quinns.

_Early morning._

 

“Quinn?”

 

“Hey, Good morning”

 

“How’s our little boy”

 

“Still sleeping, Frannie too. And you?”

 

“Ask me again in one hour”

 

“Rest a little more, I’ll get you some coffee”

 

“Thanks. You’re beaming, any reason?”

 

“Do I need any specific reason?”

 

“Quinn, come closer.”

 

“Hey” (She kisses him )

 

“That’s a more appropriate good morning”

 

“Breakfast’s ready?”

 

“In a minute”

 

“Any plan for today?”

 

“Got to see Max at 9.30”

 

“What for?”

 

“He didn’t say. It won’t take long, he says he needs help for something”.

 

“Is he still doing surveillance work?”

 

“Not that I’am aware.”

 

“Is he coming over for dinner tonight?”

 

“Yes and I was thinking we could prepare  veggie lasagne, Frannie had fun the last time we did it”

 

“You still surprise me Quinn.”

 

“Really, Carrie?”

 

“You bet,  doing the cooking, and being actually good at it! Not in my wildest dreams. And I can’t even make cookies or any simple dish.”

 

“The thing is, I grew to like. You know that. Started off as a kind of therapy, that shrink suggested it would be good, remember?”

 

“She was right”

 

“Stay here, I’ll get you something to eat? You want eggs?  Toasted bread? Jelly?”

 

“I’ll have what you’re having”.

 

_Afternoon_

 

Quinn and Frannie in the kitchen. They are preparing an artichoke and spinach lasagne, alternating sheets of pasta, vegetables, then cheese and bechamel sauce. Quinn is amused to see how handy and careful the little girl is.

 

“It’s gonna be good, right?”

 

 “ Sure, Frannie”

 

 “What was Christmas like when you were my  age?”

 

“It was not like this, we were never a real family”

 

“Why?”

 

“It was complicated and Christmas was no exception”.

 

“I’m sorry”

 

“Don’t be, sweetie. Things are much better now, I have all of you.” (He kisses her head)

 

“So you never had Christmas?”

 

“One time we did, I was very little, I don’t remember much of it, just my grandma making a baked ham. She was irish.”

 

“Was it good?”

 

“I can't say. But at times I still remember that smell. Here, let’s put this in the oven.”

 

Carrie was coming into the kitchen in that moment to get a glass of water, she had heard that conversation and stopped behind the door, moved to see someone that used to be so closed and reserved, like her Quinn, opening up like this with her daughter. Their daughter. She catches his eyes and they lock with a silent smile.

 

 

_Evening._

 

Upstairs Quinn is reading a bedtime story to Frannie. She is leaning on his shoulder, they take turns  reading, but she likes the story to unfold at her own pace, so she stops and asks questions.  She also likes  a lot detective books and is usually great at seizing on clues. Must be in her genes. But this one is a fairy tale and Quinn is making it up, more or less, or maybe not.

 

“…and so in the end the brave girl and the boy, raised by the elves, that loved her so much, kissed again. And the world stopped turning for a minute. It took a world of trouble to get back there. But it was worth it. Since the first time he laid his eyes on her, he knew. He knew about the charms she did possess and nothing had changed in his heart, all along.   He still worshipped the ground she walked on and he would continue to do so for the long road ahead.”

 

“Were they happy together?”

 

“Very much so, princess. I’ll tell you more about  them tomorrow. Time to go to sleep now”.

 

“How do you know?

 

“Trust me. I know”

 

“OK then. ‘night daddy”.

 

“Goodnight sweetie”

 

 Quinn gets downstairs and lies down beside Carrie on the couch, arms wrapped tightly around each other.

 

“I’ll  have another slice of the panettone, the new neighbors brought us the other night”

 

“Nelse and Linda. They’re nice people.”

 

“Indeed. And this panettone is really something.”

 

“Baby’s fed  and now he is sleeping. That baby monitor you got is CIA good.They should use it to bug houses. Frannie?”

 

“We read three Christmas stories and I made up another one, then she fell asleep, but  she made me promise we’d go ice skating on Tuesday. She outsmarts me, every time, like her mother”

 

“She grows up so fast”

 

“Yeah”

 

“Do you remember our first Christmas, a couple of years ago?”

 

“Fuck yes. No chance I ever forget that. Why are you asking?”

 

“Just thinking. Franny took that picture back then with my iphone. First one we ever got together”

 

“I’m not one for pictures. Anyway I look dumb”

 

“You are”.

 

“Right. Thanks. And I was  still a wreck”

 

“True”

 

“You called me, wanted me there”

 

“I had to. Frannie made me, she liked you since early on, and I don’t know why”

 

“It goes both ways. Yeah. Any other reason you called?”

 

“Maggie wanted to see you too”

 

“So there was no way out. You trapped me.”

 

“Oh shut up. You know shit, no need to revisit the past. Too tired for that”.

 

“Glad you did”

 

“Is it supposed to be like this. Shouln’t it be harder?”

 

“What Carrie?”

 

“All of this”

 

“Would you want it any other way?”

 

“Probably not”

 

“So you’re not complaining because we’re too good, right?”.

 

“I’m not.”

 

“You’re sure?”

 

“I have not say that. But we  had baggage, my condition, your condition, my previous and current line of work...”

 

“So? We’ve been through choppy waters, yes. After Berlin I was not at my best”

 

“Quite an understatement. God, that was another fucked up time”

 

“It was  And it wasn’t”.

 

“Meaning what?”

 

“You were there. Even when I was a hopeless dick”

 

“You came around. We got over that”

 

“Have I?”

 

“You got wiser”

 

“Never been wise. I just got older. We can have yelling matches if that makes you feel better or we can have more arguments”

 

“About?”

 

“Don’t know, the trash, the laundry? I still suck at so many things”

 

“Ah and  you’re such a moron”

 

“Half a moron”

 

“My moron, half or whole”

 

“I know”. (He places a delicate kiss on her left temple).

 

“I’ll think about the yelling part, though.”

 

“Fine with me”

 

“It’s just that I have this and still get to have my job, on my own terms”

 

“Again. what’s wrong with that?”

 

“Too good to be true. I never thought I could have it all. For real.”

 

“Proud of you”

 

“Oh shut up, Quinn”.

 

“Ok, but I am”

 

“How did we get this far?”

 

“That I Can’t say”.

 

“There’s no recipe. Not one that I would follow”

 

“I’m aware”.

 

“Have we become normal people?”

 

“Define normal” (He laughs)

 

“A house, kids, jobs, even friends…we have a baby monitor, for christ sake” (She laughs, this time)

 

“I know, spies monitoring just their kid. Too normal? I can turn it off. Your call”

 

“We’re boring!”

 

“Enough Carrie! That’something we’ll never be. Or maybe we can be boring for a while,  if that means I'll keep feeling this good."

 

“Can you give me your word?”

 

“Yeah" (He laughs again) You’re tired?”

 

“I am. I gave birth to our little boy two months ago and I’m still exhausted, powerless at times. With Frannie it was not like this”.

 

“Carrie, you were off to Afghanistan, right after. Hardly the same thing”

 

“And you’re in the picture now”

 

“For the long call”.

 

“What did you just say?”

 

“You heard me”

 

“I did. It’s just a massive and all too real dejà vu.”

 

“When?”

 

“In Missouri, years ago, when I had a talk with my  mom”.

 

“I didn’t know that”.

 

“Yes. It made me think”

 

“About?”

 

“Us”

 

“There was no us, back then”

 

"It could be."

 

“We’re here, after all the shit we went throught. That’s all that matters”.

 

 “Now, you’re really getting soft”

 

“Very possible. We should get some sleep, Maggie, Bill and the girls will be here about 10 a.m. tomorrow. It’s gonna be another long day, and the baby's gonna be hungry again in three hours.”

 

“You mind if we stay like this a little more?’”

 

“Not at all. As you wish, Carrie.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted it to be just dialogue which is tricky, since they don’t talk that much. I tried to keep the sentences as short as possible. At least one thing would be in character ,-)
> 
> This will never happen I know, but writing scenes like that provided a happ-ish bubble for a minute. 
> 
> I owe to laure001 a big thank you for her Love is pain Ending, which inspired the Princess Bride’s quotes here and there, all over my silly and useless scenes.
> 
> I had thought to name their two months old Eric Mathison Quinn, but I was not so sure that is why I left it out.
> 
> I give thanks to all the great bunch of people at the CQ lj community and to Frangi for setting up this calendar.  
> You all are the reason I’m still keeping up with this crazy (intersting word, right?) show.
> 
>  
> 
> There’s no exit in any direction, except the one that you can’t see with your eyes.


End file.
